We had a big argument in my house last week. During dinner, my seven-year-old daughter suggested that we go around the table naming our favorite holiday. When you have little kids, this type of dinner conversation is kind of in the upper echelon of what you’re hoping for – there’s usually no fighting or yelling or discussions that involve bathroom words. So, I was happy to oblige.
She started things off with, “my birthday.” “That’s not really a holiday, honey.” “What do you mean? It’s every year on the same day and I get loads of presents. And, by the way, here’s my list of gifts I want this year.” I really didn’t have much of a counter to that, so we moved on.
My five-year-old son went with Thanksgiving and my wife chose Christmas. I thought about it for a moment and said, “I think I agree that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.” The incredulity on my son’s face was matched only by that time he heard someone suggest that Aaron Rodgers was better than Tom Brady.
“You can’t choose Thanksgiving. I already chose it!” I calmly explained that two people, even if they’re in the same family, can have the same favorite holiday. No dice. I tried to reason with him that if only one of us got to choose it, it should be me. After all, I get to watch football all day and eat a ton of delicious food, while he gets stuck playing dress-up with his female cousins and eats only a peanut butter sandwich. That logic appeared to be lost on him. So I relented.
Instead, I chose July 4th. It’s not a bad consolation prize. Fireworks. Grilling. All-day baseball. I can live with that.
But because my son only kind of knows how to read, I can confide in you here that, truthfully, I still count Thanksgiving as my favorite holiday. It’s the best. The Macy’s parade in the morning entertains the kiddies. There’s a full day of football. And the food is delicious and plentiful. My hope is that if The Good Place is representative of reality, then that is what my Good Place will look like.
Note: that gif of The Good Place has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it’s just to show you that you should watch it anyway. Tons of Blake Bortles and Jacksonville Jaguars jokes, guys. I’m not kidding.
Anyhoo, above all, the holiday is about giving thanks. If you’re reading this article, you either have a smartphone or a computer, which means your life can’t be SO bad, right? You’re probably getting ready to feast on a big meal and watch countless hours of football on a day where nobody can tell you that it’s wrong to do so. There is a lot to be thankful for.
So before you chow down on your peanut butter sandwich and get to be a fashion model for your sister and all-female cast of cousins like my son, or before you push your father-in-law out of the way to make sure you get the best piece of turkey like me, let’s have some fun with a little Thanksgiving article. Here are some players for whom you should be thankful this year.
Drew Brees (QB – NO)
The obvious answer here is Patrick Mahomes, who not only may have been undrafted in your league (he was the 16th quarterback taken in ADP) and is setting all sorts of silly records, but is also a good tool to get your kids interested in football when you tell them that he, too, puts ketchup on pretty much everything and can throw this here ball over them mountains with ease. But let’s give some love to Brees, who continues to put up eye-popping numbers despite his advanced age.
Brees was the sixth quarterback taken with an ADP of 60th overall. He’s had some incredible seasons in his Hall-of-Fame career, but let’s do a fun exercise. If you took the best numbers from any season of Brees’ career, you’d have this stat line:
- 5,476 yards passing, 47 total touchdowns, seven interceptions, 72% completion percentage, 110.6 passer rating.
Here are Brees’ on-pace numbers in 2018, his age-39 season:
- 4,742 yards passing, 45 total touchdowns, two interceptions, 76.9% completion percentage, 126.9 passer rating.
Legitimately, this season is the equivalent of taking the best parts of Brees’ career and mashing them all together into one ridonculous package. The fact that you were able to wait until the fifth or sixth round to snag him only adds to the reason that fantasy owners should be thankful for him.
With an enticing closing schedule and his first MVP award in his sights, Brees could somehow be even better down the stretch than he’s been to this point. So if you own Brees, and even if you don’t, do your best to appreciate his greatness before you get to your pecan pie.
James Conner (RB – PIT)
There have been some truly remarkable running backs this season, with Todd Gurley scoring touchdowns at will, Kareem Hunt, Melvin Gordon, and Alvin Kamara continuing their ascension, and Saquon Barkley showing that he’s got a long and exciting career ahead of him.
But James Conner was barely an afterthought until just before the season got started. On the Tuesday before the first game of the year, a friend of mine in a very competitive two-quarterback auction league who had purchased Bell used his last dollar to snag Conner. When I congratulated him on the purchase, he legitimately said to me, “Thanks. I flipped a coin between him and Nathan Peterman because I need that bye-week quarterback.”
That’s legitimately where Conner was in the minds of even the most savvy fantasy owners just days before the season began. Le’Veon Bell’s 2018 holdout was supposed to last perhaps a few days, then maybe a week or two, then half the season, and now, into perpetuity. Regardless of if you own Bell, you could have snagged Conner at pick number 153 on average, as the 57th running back off the board.
There are other running backs whose performance alone should engender your thanks. But no player in fantasy football has combined both performance with low draft-day cost like Conner.
Tyreek Hill (WR – KC)
Chris Johnson had an incredible season in 2009. And in Week 11 of that year, I was in a must-win situation, playing against a close friend who had Johnson on his team. The Titans were playing against the Arizona Cardinals and their underwhelming defense, so I knew it was going to be a big game for Johnson and a tough week for my fantasy squad.
But midway through that game, Johnson had somehow been held completely in check, and I was projected to win. My friend and I were texting throughout the day and I kept downplaying my chances of victory. Suddenly, his point total jumped by 14.5, and I saw that Johnson had just broken off an 85-yard touchdown run. And I texted him, “Chris Johnson!!!!!!!!” My friend likes to tell me that when he read that text, he imagined me screaming CHRIS JOHNSON as loud as I could in anger. Which, to be fair, is pretty much what my text was supposed to convey.
Anyway, after that season, my friend and I created the Chris Johnson!!!!!! award. It goes to the player who is so consistently explosive that if you’re going against him, you are NEVER comfortable. It could be two minutes left in the game and you’re up by 10 points, but if that player’s team is on offense, you are legitimately preparing yourself to lose.
We don’t give out that award every year. The criteria is steep (think Michael Vick in the 2010 season). But this year, Tyreek Hill has earned it, without question. Hill doesn’t always have huge games. But if you’re playing against him, you’re just . . . uncomfortable. He can take a wide receiver screen 50 yards without breaking a sweat. A 75-yard catch-and-run slant route feels commonplace. At one point on Monday Night Football, ESPN noted that Hill had just caught his 15th touchdown of 50-plus yards since 2016, which is NINE more than any other player.
So long as you’re not going against him, there are few more exciting players to watch in the game than Hill. And frankly, with an @cheetah Twitter handle, he’s also my daughter’s favorite player. And considering that nobody is going against him this week because the Chiefs are on a bye, we can all take a minute to just give him his due.
George Kittle (TE – SF)
Zach Ertz and Travis Kelce are your obvious names — if you drafted them, you probably did so in the second or third round and they have been worth every penny and more. On Sunday night’s FantasyPros Football Podcast, Mike Tagliere and I discussed where you’d take both of them if you could draft again, and we agreed it would be in the middle of the second round, at absolute latest. So, truthfully, they deserve all our thanks for being in a class by themselves.
But if you own George Kittle, you are probably a) pretty savvy, because you were likely the last person in your league to take a tight end and still nailed one of the best and b) someone who assumed that Kittle would have Jimmy Garoppolo throwing him the ball all year. And when Garoppolo went down, fantasy owners feared the worst, having seen how little Kittle produced with C.J. Beathard last season. And then when Kittle produced with Beathard, suddenly there was this unverified dude on Twitter named Nick Mullens who was set to throw him the ball.
None of it has mattered. Kittle has seen fewer than seven targets just three times this season. He has fewer than four receptions once. He has been at the top end of what fantasy owners who drafted him could have hoped for. And with legitimately every tight end option other than Ertz, Kelce, and Kittle being an absolute dud, fantasy owners should take a minute and express their thanks to the big guy.
And with that, I hope everyone enjoys my favorite . . . er . . . I mean second favorite holiday.
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Dan Harris is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Dan, check out his archive or follow him on Twitter @danharris80.
